ANTHRAX guitarist Rob Caggiano was interviewed on last night's (Saturday, October 24) edition of the "Maximum Threshold" show. The entire program can now be streamed using the audio player below. (Note: The Caggiano interview begins around the one-hour, 28-minute mark.)

Regarding ANTHRAX's current status, Caggiano said, "We just got back from Japan. We played the Loud Park festival in Tokyo. That was pretty killer.

"We're just kind of taking it easy right now, getting ready to finish the new ANTHRAX record — getting things rolling with that. . . I'm producing and engineering the whole thing.

"I'm sure you guys know the whole story, but the record's pretty much... I mean, it was done... [laughs] and now, it's not confirmed or anything yet — it's unofficial — but it looks like John Bush's [ANTHRAX's singer from 1992 to 2005] gonna do the vocals on it. So we're all kind of keeping our fingers crossed and hopefully it's gonna go great. The record rules; we're all really, really excited about it."

On ANTHRAX's split with singer Dan Nelson, who laid down the vocals on the band's new CD before parting ways with the group in July:

"I really don't wanna go too much into that whole thing, because it's just gonna get weird. But Dan's a good guy, and he's a great, great singer — he sounds amazing. It just didn't work out. It's really as simple as that. We all tried this thing, this direction, and it just wasn't working. But none of that stuff really matters. I mean, we're all kind of looking to the future at this point. And it feels really good. I mean, the last few shows we did were awesome; we're all really, really excited."

On ANTHRAX's forthcoming album:

"I think the fans are really gonna dig this new record, when it's finally done. [laughs] It's kind of a... definitely a progression from the last album. There's definitely a few nods to the old-school stuff as well. It's just all around a really, really, really strong record."

ANTHRAX (featuring John Bush) is confirmed for the 2010 edition of Australia's Soundwave Festival, which will kick off on February 20 in Brisbane.

The dates are as follows:

Feb. 20 - Brisbane, AUS - RNA Showgrounds
Feb. 21 - Sydney, AUS - Eastern Creek Raceway
Feb. 26 - Melbourne, AUS - Melbourne Showgrounds
Feb. 27 - Adelaide, AUS - Bonython Park
Mar. 01 - Perth, AUS - Bassendean Oval

As a result of ANTHRAX's split with Nelson, the band canceled 10 European shows and pulled out of a U.S. tour with SLIPKNOT which was scheduled to take place in August and September.

Photo below courtesy of Loud Park festival.

Rob Caggiano interviewed on "Maximum Threshold" (Note: The Caggiano interview begins around the one-hour, 28-minute mark.)